Is Swag bucks a Scam?

What is Swagbucks?

“If it seems to too good to be true then it probably is” – a very sensible mantra to apply to any online opportunity that presents itself and one that I certainly use to avoid scams. Many people’s immediate reaction to hearing about Swagbucks is that it seems to good to be true. So, is Swag bucks a scam or is it a perfectly legitimate way to make a little extra money online for free?

I guess that if you are reading this you have already heard of Swagbucks and are a bit suspicious.

You probably think it all sounds too good to be true … but is it?

Whilst it is certainly true that the internet is full of fraudsters and you are quite sensible to be suspicious, there are also some genuine opportunities. The difficult part is trying to figure out which are scams and which are legitimate.

I have been using Swagbucks for approximately 2 months now and I know that it is NOT scam. I was suspicious at first, but I quickly realised that it was perfectly legitimate and I am going to explain how I came to that realisation.

What is a Scam?

A “Scam” is defined as “a dishonest scheme, fraud, swindle”.

The essential basic features of any fraud / scam are:

you give the organisation some money

they promise to give you something valuable in return (very often silly Big Promises)

they take your money and give you nothing back

Is Swag Bucks a Scam?

(1) Giving Money?

You do NOT need to give Swagbucks any money at any time ever. In fact, you don’t even need to give them any credit card details, bank account details or even your home address. All that they require is your name and an email address – much the same as if you were signing up for a newsletter. They need your email address so that they can send the vouchers, gift cards and paypal cash to you.

If you don’t give them any way of getting money from your bank account or credit card, now on earth can they scam you? They can’t!

… which brings me on to:

(2) They Promise to Give you something

Swagbucks certainly do promise to give you Swag Bucks (their own virtual currency) and state that you can exchange them for paypal cash, vouchers and gift cards once you have saved enough of them. However, they do NOT make any Big Promises of getting rich beyond your wildest dreams. You will not be able to give up your day job and make a living at Swagbucks – it is just a nice little way of earning a little extra money each week without doing very much.

I earn about £10 per week in iTunes gift cards by spending no more than 1 hour per day at Swagbucks (and most of that is whilst doing other things too)

(3) They Take Your Money and Give Nothing Back?

Well, we have already established they they don’t take any money from you.

So, what do you get?

You get exactly what they say you will get. Once you have earned enough swag bucks, you ask to exchange them for your chosen reward and a few days later you get your reward – its as simple as that.

How can they do this?

You are probably wondering how they can apparently give you something for nothing? The answer is that they are not. The underlying reasons why they can give you rewards are:

Many of the tasks involve watching short adverts – the advertisers pay Swagbucks and they pass some of that money on to you;

Survey companies are quite happy to pay people to participate since, otherwise, very few people would do it;

Companies are happy to pay Swagbucks to advertise their products and services on their site and they pass some of the money on to you (I don’t get involved in earning Swag Bucks by paying for anything or doing any free trials – but that’s entirely up to you).

So, you are not getting money for nothing, you are getting money for something – its just that if you play the system you can get money for doing very little … and that’s where I can help. My User Guides are listed at the bottom of this page.